Karen Hutton has never visited Denver, but come next winter, she’ll be directing thousands of commuters to their destinations every day.

As the new voice of RTD’s light-rail extension from Denver south to Douglas County, the 50- year-old’s warm alto will soon clue commuters to upcoming stops, update folks about service and dish out a firm but friendly, “The doors are closing, please stand clear” order to lollygaggers.

And it’ll all be done with recordings Hutton made nearly two years ago at her Lake Tahoe, Calif.-area studio.

“The idea that my voice is going to tell people what to do in Denver is pretty cool,” said Hutton, who has more than two decades of experience as the professional voice of phone systems, commercials and documentaries. “I hope people like it.”

So does RTD, which is spending more than $90 million on 34 new rail cars for the expanded line, part of the massive T-REX transportation project scheduled for completion late this year. The new cars are equipped with the latest digital sound system, making Hutton’s voice seem more live and clear.

And before anyone thinks that putting down audio tracks for a transit system is easy, consider this: Hutton was one of eight finalists for the job, picked by Sacramento, Calif.-based Siemens Transportation Systems Inc., the light-rail-car contractor.

Several Siemens employees and a focus group vetted the voice finalists, all women, using an Olympic-style judging scale from one to 10.

RTD, which requested a woman’s voice to match the one on the current light-rail lines, signed off on the selection.

“It had to be a pleasant voice that people would be willing to listen to on a 45-minute commute,” said David Mortimer, a Siemens project manager who oversees the light-rail contract and helped select Hutton. “Really, there’s nothing scientific about it.”

Oh, but there is, said Dennis Preston, an English professor at Michigan State University.

Selecting a voice that is pleasing isn’t finding the right sound, Preston said. Rather, it’s “that you don’t detect something that you don’t like,” such as regional accents and creaky deliveries.

“Everyone tries to match a voice to a stereotype that fits the message you’re sending,” said Preston, who specializes in sociolinguistics – how language connects with society. For a transit line, “you’re going to need something that conveys some authority or directness.”

That can be particularly tricky for female voices, which Preston said tend to have a “more comfortable and relaxing” sound. And it’s especially tricky because feminine voices used on phone systems, transit lines and other operations can’t come off as too sexy or strident.

In Hutton’s case, she announces stations, directions and public service news in light, friendly tones she finds in a “place inside of me that connects to people.”

She started her voice work as an actress in San Francisco, then as a professional “voice” and a voice coach. After she was chosen for the job in 2004, it took Hutton an afternoon to spit out all 200-plus RTD light-rail prompts in her Truckee, Calif., studio, which were then sent as audio files to Siemens.

From there, the files were sent to Envitech, the company that made the audio system. The program will be tested dozens of times before the 19-mile line addition goes public next winter.

Hutton and Siemens said they could not remember how much she was paid for the work.

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